HELP, multiple problems

[mclemony]

Hi
Newbie here who seems to have made all the mistakes that every newbie does.
60l tank that was cycled empty(ie no fish) for at least six weeks. we have an air curtain and stone, no plants and a fluval 3 with carbon filter.

we made the mistake of buying alot of fish all at one go (approx 30 tetras, mollies, barbs, wagtails). with forty eight hours two black mollies and one red were dead (no symptoms). got the water tested lfs slight nitrite level but nil else. since then approx two weeks we have done a 10% water change every other day equiv the whole tank really. Fish are fed twice a day with flaked fish food 3-4 pinches each feed (is this too much?) During this time we have had the odd fish die tetras and mollies and wagtail (probably lost ten fish in total).

Now some of the hardier fish are beging to look bloated and one of the wag tails could look a bit pop eyed, they all seem abit more listless than normal and the dalmation mollies which we have had no problems with before have taken to sticking themselves to the side of the filter. these are the first symptoms we have seen, water was a bit cloudy but better with water changes.

I know we need to retest the water for a start but any idea what the symptoms could be, I have read, swim bladder, constipation, bacterial infection, dropsy, all of the above.

sorry for the long post
HELP

Mclemony

 

[CFC]

Do you have any test kits at home?When starting up a new a new tank it is very important to test the water at least once weekly and twice if new fish have been added.A good test kit containg tests for ammonia,nitrite,nitrate and PH is a essential purchase.
Keep up the water changes and cut the feeding down to once every other day,dont worry the fish wont starve adult fish can go weeks without feeding,this will allow the bacteria in the filter to catch up with the biological load.
It is best not to add any medications until you have a very good idea what you are dealing with,most medications cannot be mixed and although say they are harmless to bacteria colonies they will knock the filter for six.
Have you fed any live or frozen foods?IMO fish should be fed some "pond" foods at least once a week,foods like bloodworm,daphnia (water fleas) and brine shrimp should be available from your lfs.Without live foods fish can become constipated which would cause the symptoms you have described,slugishness and bloated,i personally never use flake foods for any of my fish but thats just personal prefference and without spending shedloads of cash flakes are probably the best way of given your fish a varied diet.Fish should be fed no more than what can be completely consumed in two minutes,there are exeptions to this when feeding pellets for bottom dwellers such as plecs loaches and catfish but since you havnt mentioned these i wont go into that now.

 

[mclemony]

Thanks catfish crazy for the info, will get some live food (you mention once a week but how much), sorry we do have a few albino corys i forgot to mention, so do we need pellets as well? since last posting the dalmation mollie I talked about has died as well. we did test the tank two weeks ago and it was fine(small nitrite) but have not been able to go and get the test kits yet due to work.

have heard that adding epsom salts to the water could solve the constipation problem is this true and if so what amount

mclemony

 

[CFC]

Firstly do not add salts of any kind to the tank,corys like all catfish and some loaches are scaleless fish and salt will burn their skin,IMO there should be no need to add salt to a tank unless a)it is a brackish set up or b)it is a hospital tank and you are using the salt for medicinal purposes.

Live food is normally sold in little bags of water (unless you are buying large ammounts when it comes wrapped in damp newspaper),a bag each of bloodworm and daphnia will be plenty,again gauge the ammount by how much your fish will eat in two minutes.
For the corries i would suggest feeding some small sinking catfish pellets when you feed the flakes,i personally use the JMC brand for smaller fish like corys as they are bite size where as with others you have to wait for the pellets to soften up before they can nibble them.

 

[mclemony]

Thanks catfish crazy

We have just finished testing the water results are as follows

ph 6.5
ammonia 0
nitrite 1.6
nitrate 110 (I know this may not be accurate)

just about to do a 20% water change, we also have pellets and bloodworms and plan on giving one feed of blood worms tomorrow night because of laxative effect.

am I right in thinking that this cycle is ok and that frequent water changes will improve things

Mclemony

 

[H2O]

mclemony - the Nitrite reading needs to be 0. Anything higher is highly toxic to fish. So the tank is not finished cycling yet.
The Nitrate level also needs to come down but that can be brought down with water changes.

 

[mclemony]

sorry goby guy what I meant to say was that we are probably nearer the end of the cycle, with everything going on I expected the nitrites to be much higher and for there to be some ammonia so I was surprised with the results.

Mclemony

 

[CFC]

With Nitrate readings that high the cycle has finnished,the Nitrite readings are from adding too many fish at once and causing a mini cycle.Like you say just keep up with the small daily water changes and keep feedings small and every other day and every thing will be OK.

 

[mclemony]

Thanks for all your help catfish, thought that might be the case but just wanted it confirming.

No new deaths this am, and the abdo swellings dont look as bad.

Mclemony

 

[Pufferpack]

Hmmm...60 Litre tank, thats roughly 18-20 gals right? I think you may continue to have troubles due to being overstocked ...I know the Fluval 3's are rated for around 100 litres or more, but is that enough filtration? Even with only 20 or so fish left you probably have a total of 40-50 inches of fish in there. You may need to look into more tanks in the near future (welcome to MTS ) especially once the live bearers start pumping out the fry

HTH

 

[CFC]

OOOPS,i total miss read that you get so used to everyone usings gallons that litres just dont register ) prehaps from now on it would help if people gave the dimensions of a tank as well as the volume. Pufferpack is right the tank is over stocked,the recomended stocking level for new tanks is 1" per gallon which means for a tank that size 20 small fish or less.

 

[mclemony]

Yeah I know catfish, I did say that we had made all the mistakes that newbies make, thankfully we are probably down to about that number now and some of the flame tetras are v small and we seem to have lost mostly the big fish. But yes we have already resigned ourselves to a second tank eventually.

mclemony

 

[Pufferpack]

...thats pretty much how we began, now we have 6 tanks up and running, and probably not done yet ...Good luck, let us know how things work out